It’s getting close to camping time here in the Midwest. I love camping. I love loading up the car with my tent, sleeping bags, coolers filled with various meats and beers, and heading into the wilderness. Had I not been recently gifted a pair of new, cold-weather sleeping bags, I’d consider building my own from the UK’s PHD Mountain Software.

The company’s website has a slick Flash interface for constructing your own sleeping bag, and offers two “trails” to getting it done: the “free route” — if you know what you’re doing — or the “guided route” for the novice. Since I don’t know the first thing about building a sleeping bag, I chose the guided route.

The prices, unsurprisingly, are not cheap. The bag I built was 270.00 GBP (about $530 USD), and I’m sure it could have been much higher had I selected more add-ons. But this might be the perfect thing for the hardcore camping or mountaineering enthusiast with some extra cash to burn. For now, I’ll stick to my Keltys.